Protection
by jhvh777
Summary: In the beginning there was only the two of them.
1. Chapter 1

For Cal. I love your crack!ship

BillyxNate

He was the first one that Nate found. He had run into him, literally, one morning as he was rushing to school. They had both gone toppling to the ground, and, like something out of a cheesy movie, he had ended up halfway straddling the confused boy. They had jumped apart, blushing and apologizing, before Nate had asked his name.

He should have known that something was up when the stranger's eyes grew wide and he was asked to skip school to discuss some important business with the guy he had just randomly run into. The second clue should have been when Nate had no idea what pizza was. Third, when he tried to pay with this weird coin until he had pretended it was a joke and payed for it himself.

Out of all of the options on what his problem was, time traveler looking to recruit him for a new iteration of the Avengers was probably the best.

They had parted ways later that day with a promise to meet up after he got out of school the next day. There were a few butterflies in his stomach when Nate gave him that small thankful smile as he walked off, but nothing too serious. They were all hiding because his parents were going to kill him when he got home.

It took him an hour to convince his parents to not ground him for skipping school. There was a foreigner who had gotten lost, and by the time everything had been sorted out he was across town and school was an hour from being over. It was never going to happen again. Honest! His parents probably thought it was a shitty excuse, but he didn't smell like drugs or alcohol, and wasn't hurt, so they let it slide.

He met with Nate after school everyday for the next week. While Nate knew who was on the list of recruits, he had no idea how to approach them. So they had worked on twenty-first century etiquette and social norms. That's when he had let it slip that he just wasn't into the fairer sex. Nate let it slip that he didn't really have any luck with girls. He asked if Nate wanted to grab some dinner or catch a movie or something sometime. Surprisingly, he agreed.

They were never an official couple or anything. They would grab dinner, go see a movie, make out in the dark, and other couple things, but they knew it wasn't going to last. Not when Nate started to crush on one of the new guys, Eli, and he on Teddy. The other two were clueless at first, and while Nate got over his, he started to officially date Teddy.

And while they weren't 'together' together, they were still a team, still close. Even when Nate had to leave, he still came back. Came back to save _him_, not Cassie, not Eli, _him_. And while he did love Teddy with every fiber of his being, just like Nate loved Cassie, the two of them would always have something special. Something that couldn't be defined by standard relationships. And when Teddy and Cassie were out doing some team bonding, they would stay behind to do some bonding of their own.


	2. Chapter 2

Cal, you are now the captain of the SS Crack!ship.

When he had first arrived in the twenty first century, he honestly had no idea what he was doing. He had studied it in school, and read about the pop culture of the era, but the moment he stepped out of the vortex and into the past he froze up. Everything was so different, dirty, organic. The city didn't try to polish itself up. There was dirt on the streets, garbage in the alleys, people everywhere. You could actually see the sky when you looked up, not cars or people, but blue sky.

He found out quickly that the attitude of big city people hadn't changed much. He was blown off by every ex-Avenger he could find, shoved out of the way in the streets, and generally treated like garbage. He was very, very happy when he found no one in the old mansion and quickly claimed one of the rooms for himself and started thinking of a backup plan.

Vision was a godsend.

He decided to start with the one who looked like he was least likely to punch him when he approached. Billy looked like a nice kid, kinda dorky like him, and Vision said he had magic. Magic's always useful. So he set out the next morning towards Billy's school, trying to figure out how he was going to get his attention.

Getting bowled over wasn't exactly how he wanted to meet. Could have been worse, he figured. He could have ended up on the ground because Billy had handed him his ass. Instead the other boy helped him up and apologized a million times. He shook off the apologies and introduced himself, and was shocked that the universe had finally smiled on him for once as the boy introduced himself as well. He knew that Billy was going to leave for something, school probably, but he couldn't let his first prospect just wander off. So he asked if the other boy would go with him to grab a bite or something (that was the correct slang, right?)

He should have looked deeper at the differences between his time and the past since he was pretty sure that Billy thought he was insane. The 'pizza' stuff was pretty good, but seriously, who didn't take credit chits? By this point Billy was eying the door like he was thinking about running, so he just told him why he was looking for him.

And Billy believed him.

It was getting late by the time they had finished discussing what they were going to do, so they decided to meet up the next day. He headed back to Avenger's mansion and ran simulations before heading to bed.

He found over the next few weeks that he really appreciated Billy. Whenever he had a problem with fitting in or just finding the right words Billy was there helping him. He felt a connection to the brunette that he hadn't ever felt with anyone before. It wasn't love, wasn't even really attraction. It was something difficult to put into words. They were very close friends who hung out a lot and enjoyed each others company, who sometimes fought crime, and occasionally had friendly dates. It wasn't platonic, it wasn't romantic, it was just, just, _them_. And when Billy found Teddy he was very happy for him.

As he traveled through time he would occasionally stop to watch his old team in action. And watching them fight without him gave him the resolve to create his device to allow him to stay in different places in the time stream. They were more of a family to him than anyone in the 30th century. So between Kang fights he would toil away at his machine. He finished it just in time.

It was a huge shock to see the Youn- er, the Avengers traveling with Kang. His stomach turned to ice when he found out _why_ they were hunting down the original Avengers. Billy couldn't be dead. Billy was too powerful, strong, kind to ever make anyone hate him. But he wasn't there, and Teddy looked distant and cold, everyone did, so it must have been true.

He tried to not change history when he traveled. Those problems with the time stream caused huge problems later on, but this time he was going to make an exception. Billy had saved him when he first arrived, saved his life on multiple occasions. He was not allowed to die.

He ran through the time stream, urging his ship to get him to his destination faster. His heart stopped when he saw Billy tackle Wolverine, tackle his murderer away from the Scarlet Witch while his ship was stabilizing. As soon as it opened he raced across the field, trying desperately to get there in time, but he was too late. Wolverine had run him through before moving onto the Scarlet Witch. He blasted Wolverine out of the way and landed beside Billy. Billy, who was gasping for breath as he tried to sit up.

"Na-na-te?" he coughed as his body was gently cradled.

"I'm here Billy. Don't move, don't talk. I'm going to get you help." Billy just shook his head.

" 's too late. T-tell Teddy 'm sorry." His head fell against his armor as his eyes started to slide shut. "'m so srry." He let out a breath. He didn't take another in. He was gone.

He gently set Billy down before walking back to his ship. He was a time traveler goddammit. He was _going_ to _fix_ this, whether time liked it or not. He set the clock back and tried again.

He got out before the battle even really began, and so he hid and waited. The scene played out before him again, Billy and Wanda escaping the castle, Wolverine cornering them, Billy trying to reason with the X-man. He flew across the field, he couldn't let this end the same way. Billy tackled Wolverine again as he charged up his shot and released it before Wolverine could take his friend's life again.

Billy looked completely shocked to see him, but he couldn't care less. He gave the witch a hug before going to stop the fight.

And later, after everything was said and done and the whole team was back together, he and Billy were able to sneak off from the rest of the team. He never told Billy how close he came to dying, just pulled him into a bone crushing hug and swore he'd always protect him. And he hoped that would be enough.


End file.
